Defense Against a Dark Art
by GronHatchat
Summary: Dawn is an Auror, and has managed a track on infamous Dark Wizard serial killer, John Dawtson.


Dawn jumped across the scattered rubble of what was left of the pews and leaped behind a stone pillar holding up the colossal roof just as another jet of green light came crashing towards her, slamming into the part of the pillar her head had just been in front of. She could hear him coming closer, cackling an evil, twisted laughter. He did not expect her to get away. She doubted that she would be able to, herself. Not from him. Not from the Dark Lord.  
"Come out, my little mouse, and play with me, will you? Retreating into your hole will not save you. Come, and accept death." His voice, a hissing monstrosity of evil and cold chills that swept upon you like rain in a blizzard, it heightened her state of insecurity and made her feel unclean just to know such a voice could exist. High and cold, it spoke death.  
Her mind went to Alex, safe and warm at home, having no idea of what was happening. He would be expecting her home, any time now, with the groceries from the supermarket. He would be expecting her soon, so that they could begin cooking Christmas dinner together, as they always had, for the last three years. But she was not going to make it home. The Dark Lord would see to that.  
"You made a mistake in capturing Arabella," the cold voice hissed, and it was even closer now, as if he were right on top of her. "You made a mistake in handing her over to the authorities. I will break open, Azkaban, you foolish girl, and she and I shall reign free, and you and your husband's bodies shall be used as our footstools."  
Dawn thought only chilled, fearful thoughts as she listened to the evil words. No! Whatever happened this day, she would not let him get his filthy hands on Alex! She would die defending him. That…that would be her Christmas gift to him. Her life.  
She jumped around the side of the pillar with a fierce yell and, even though she could not see him through the dim darkness of the darkly evening moon lit church chamber, she could make out his silhouette in the gloom, and it helped that he was giving off a powerfully radiant red aura.  
"STUPEFY!" she screamed. The jet of red light shot from her wand just as the jet of green issued from his. The two spells collided and exploded, sending out gold and red sparks everywhere and blowing both duelists off their feet with a powerful wind. Dawn went flying into a pile of rubble that had once been an alter table on the side of the chamber and she jumped back to her feet as quickly as she could, but even as she painfully struggled upright (for the fall had caused her to strike her shoulder hard against the stone wall), she heard the loud crack and felt the dark presence and the faint pop and she knew that the Dark Lord had disapperated and apparated right beside her. His hand flew out of the darkness and he grabbed her around the throat.  
Laughing his high, cold, cruel laughter of death, the Dark Lord lifted Dawn off of her feet. He was choking her so powerfully that she could not even muster the strength to raise her wand in defense. The Dark Lord's wand loomed into her side vision and he pressed the tip of it against her cheek. She could not see the evil face hidden by the hood, but she knew it all too well. The Dark Lord's face was a nightmare beyond nightmares.  
"Tick tock, goes the clock that named all strength and valor, tick tock goes the clock, that Dawn was all devoured." The Dark Lord sang this song and meant death in every vocal.  
"Your h-hourglass is ticking, too," she strained through the strangulation. "You'll see. A-Alex will m-make sure of it."  
"Ah, I just bet he will," the cold voice hissed, and thoughts of snakes issued inside of her head. All of her breath was fading away, and all of her life was soaring away, and her shell was becoming nothing more than a shell. Her brain was stopping functioning, and her arms had gone numb. As the whites began to form in her eyes, she stared intently into the darkness of the hood, wanting to see that devil's face before she died, not die avoiding eye contact, but strong and brave.  
The cloak slipped slightly off of his face, but just a little, as he began to laugh, and the light coming in from the window behind them shined on the face that suddenly appeared, and looking into those eyes, the ones that had haunted her for years, she suddenly realized that life was too beautiful to give in this easily. The Dark Lord's eyes shined with malice, but she saw another pair of shining eyes. Intense blue ones that shined with love and adoration. An affection beyond words and a guilt mixed with innocence beyond understanding.  
And suddenly, it was as if a light had erupted inside of her that the Dark Lord could not intensify with darkness, and suddenly, there was a feeling inside of her that she could explain, as if some beautiful music, a deep, comforting music, was inside her very blood, and it driving her with a force of will so powerful that it made the Dark Lord look like a first year student at Hogwarts. Phoenix song.  
At once, she made the move. Feeling returned to her in a flash of phoenix song (a dark shadow went flying past the window behind her, and in her heart she knew that it was there), she twisted herself in his grip, the wand still gripped in her hand, her mind focused on once place. At once, her world turned black in darkness and from every direction she felt a hard pressure hat threw itself at her. Although she could not breath, she kept her mind focused. Her chest was getting constricted, her eyes seemed to be under a lot of physical pressure, her ears ringing as if hundreds of feet underwater… and then she appeared behind with him with that little pop. He stood frozen for just a moment, groping at air, before registering what had just happened, and even as he swung around to face her, wand angrily held ready to kill, his howl of rage like a snarling beast, she was ready.  
Jumping to the side to avoid the sudden jet of green light, she screamed, "STUPEFY!" He blocked her stunning spell with a shield charm and screamed in response, "CRUCIO!" Dawn screamed as she managed to duck but the Cruciatus Curse had struck the tip of her outstretched arm before she had been able to move it. The curse seared fiery pain like a thousand white hot knives striking agony into her right hand, and she pulled it back at once. The curse let up and, her wand hand still shaking from the pain it had just been exposed to, she sent another stunning spell at him. He blocked it once more, and with a loud crack disapparated. She heard the faint pop to her left and leapt aside as another Torture Curse came at her. This time she managed to avoid it completely and she retaliated with, "REDUCTO!" A streak of blue-white light burst from her wand and the Dark Lord barely had time to deflect it. His shield charm came up fast enough but it shook powerfully when the Blasting Curse hit it, and he toppled backwards on his feet.  
Not hesitating, Dawn took her chance. She sent spell after spell.  
"STUPEFY! STUPEFY! REDUCTO! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS! INCENDIO! STUPEFY!"  
The Dark Lord blocked and blocked but with each block he became shakier and shakier and could not keep to his feet, holding himself up with one hand but slightly kneeling. She saw the light of fear in his eyes, and she sent another stunning spell at him. Weakened, exhausted, the Dark Lord raised his wand but before he could block it was already striking him. With a small grunt he toppled back, his wand flying from his hand, and Dawn leapt forward at once.  
"Accio wand!" His wand went soaring into her free hand, and pointing her own at the Dark Lord's unconscious form, she summoned thick chains that wrapped themselves around his body, binding him tightly. Then, placing the tip of her wand against his head, she muttered, "Ennervate". The Dark Lord groaned, and Dawn flicked back the hood.  
"Lumos maxima!" A brilliantly blinding white light erupted from her wand tip and it was done exceedingly well that the entire cathedral was lit. Pews were destroyed and crumbled. The alter was in disarray and cracked. Several stained glass windows were shattered. But the cross above the front alter still stood, untouched, shining a radiant gold in the light from the wand.  
Dawn looked down into the face of the Dark Lord and he stared right back. Stared back in hatred…and in desire. Dawn looked into those eyes that she had once thought so beautiful, and felt pity mixed with loathing, and a sadness within that she could not envelope away.  
"Why?" The word came out of her in a desperate claim.  
"Why what!?" he spat at her, although now his voice was shaking with childish anger and fear. The high coldness seemed to have evaporated in defeat.  
"Why the hell did you do all of this!?" she demanded, blinking back tears. He stared at her intently. She was really asking him to answer that. Fiercely, with hatred bred with passion, he muttered, "Who else could have done it?"  
"What do you mean who else could have done it!?" she screamed, slamming her free fist that held his wand against his chest. He grunted in pain. "Why-the-hell-would-you-do-all-of-this!?" With each struggle of word she slammed her fist into his chest. He roared in pain and humiliation.  
"I DID IT FOR YOU, DAWN!" He screamed, blinking back tears of her own. "I DID IT ALL FOR YOU! If there was ever a woman I could change the world for, it was you, I know it, it was always you!"  
"Change the world!? How could you change the world by destroying it?"  
"This world if filthy!" the Dark Lord spat at her. "Filthy, with dirty animals piling up the streets with their own bodies and getting away with murder and rape and burglary! I made them pay for their insolence! I punished them when the law would not! I made Wizard all around the world revere me, and I made the enemies of the Earth fear me! I am Lord Iohannes, the greatest of all the Aurors in the world."  
"No…no…" Dawn's heart broke with every word that spoke, and she could not bear to listen to his evil words. His misled words. "No, you are not. You were so much more when you were just…just you."  
"What the hell do you know!?" the Dark Lord screamed at her.  
"I know you more than anyone else in this entire world knows you! The only one who knows more is God himself! I know who you are inside, and outside, and I know that this is not you! I know this not you." She pounded a fist against his chest and began to cry intensely into his stomach. He dared not to make a move. He dared not to make a noise. For she was close to him. Against him. His very desires were being played out. It was a beautiful thing, and he would not be the one to break up. She raised her head and shook it. "I know you more than your own family knows you. And do you want to know what I know? I know that you can be a lot more than this monster….John."  
He gasped, his eyes growing wide. He looked at her in disbelief and unknowingness.  
"What did you call me?"  
"Your name, John. It's not the Dark Lord. It's not Lord Iohannes. You were once someone of great importance to me, and you had a lot of potential that could not be under mined. If there is one thing I know…it's that you're more than this."  
John continued to stare at her in shock and disbelief. Tears were flooding down his face. Fear and self-pity overtook him. He was shaking hard. Shaking and cringing his hands together and he knew nothing of comfort in that moment save for her presence. He stared into her eyes, and her into his.  
"Help me, Dawn…."  
Dawn blinked back tears. "I can't."  
And she sent a stunning spell that subdued him into unconsciousness once more. She stood up, with difficulty, shaking in tears. She would have to contact her boss at the Auror office and let him know what she had managed to do tonight. Hopefully Alex could wait a little longer for her. The Dark Lord Iohannes…or as she would always know him, John Dawson… was finally defeated. She had did the world a service tonight. This…this was her Christmas gift to Alex.  
She raised her wand and from it burst a small, bright white animal from its tip. The small dog soared off into the night sky through the open church door.  
"Go, Squish," she whispered. The Patronus would alert Su soon. He would arrive with an armed guard of no less than fifteen Aurors, no doubt. She would sit and wait quietly with John until they came. After that…his fate could no longer be decided by her.


End file.
